McHale's coaching philosophy lives, thrives in paint

McHale lives, thrives in paintHe's no artist, but coach thinks game's canvas created in lane

JONATHAN FEIGEN , Copyright 2011 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, June 5, 2011

For now, Kevin McHale favors the idea of running much of Rick Adelman's offense. It fits the Rockets' roster. It worked.

But change the roster, and he would change the offense to suit the talent.

McHale has plans for the Rockets' defense, too, schemes he believes will be best for the players he'll inherit.

But give him a shot-blocking center or two, and he said he would do things differently.

Yet there are constants in his philosophies, priorities that will stay the same no matter how many changes come to the roster.

For McHale, nothing seems as important as what happens on the part of the floor he once owned. Get the ball in the paint and protect the paint.

Photo: Eric Kayne, For The Chronicle

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The Rockets and owner Les Alexander, right, are placing their hopes on new coach Kevin McHale to lead them back to the playoffs.

The Rockets and owner Les Alexander, right, are placing their hopes on new coach Kevin McHale to lead them back to the playoffs.

Photo: Eric Kayne, For The Chronicle

McHale's coaching philosophy lives, thrives in paint

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How that is done changes, but to McHale it must be done.

"Look, we have to protect the paint," McHale said. "Some things don't change and protecting the paint is one of those things that can't change. On the offensive end, you have to be able to get the ball in the paint and collapse the defense. Why you're trying to do it on offense is the same reason you're trying to stop it on defense. When the ball gets in the paint, it changes everything."

No coach would disagree, but different coaches have different starting points. With Jeff Van Gundy as coach, no matter how hard the Rockets played, if they lost they should have played harder. When the Rockets lost under Adelman, they could have moved themselves and the ball better.

One-track mind

McHale, speaking with every bit the conviction of his more experienced predecessors, made it clear what he would consider job one. In a span of seven minutes, he used the term "protect the paint" eight times.

When discussing why he enjoyed his job with TNT and NBA TV, he said, "you have to protect the paint," twice.

"You got to protect the paint," McHale said. "Your personnel is going to dictate how you protect the paint. If you think you're going to protect the paint by having Yao (Ming) show hard, blitz the screen-and-roll, recover from seven and eight feet above the 3-point line back to the paint in time to control the paint, then you do it. If you're one that doesn't think that, you don't do that.

"I know how we'll protect the paint with this team. We have to plug early, get your big guys over, load to the ball, stop that initial penetration. You can't have straight-line drives, can't have blow-bys. If you get into it and you're lucky enough to get a huge, shot-blocking center, you can funnel everything to him a little more.

"On the offensive end, you have to be able to get the ball in the paint and collapse the defense."

McHale is not a coach who will shout his way through games, though he would probably be much more demonstrative early than he intends long term.

"I probably got my style from my high school coach, Gary Addington, a great guy," McHale said. "If you have to yell and scream during the game, you're not coaching enough in practice.

"The games are for the players, practices are for the coach. In the NBA, if you have to yell, get up and down and scream all the time, they don't know your schemes, they don't know what you're doing well enough.

"Any good team, the players take ownership of the team. It's your job to allow them to take ownership of the team when they're ready to take it. They have to take ownership of the team.

"When you see a team with long periods of success, their core group has taken ownership of that team. And when people come in, they say 'this is how we do it here.' "

Must play to strengths

How the Rockets do things will be determined by who will do them. But McHale will want it done first inside.

"I'm not one of those guys that says 'this is my offense, run it,' " McHale said. "If I had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and I don't run a low-post offense, I'm not very smart. Same if I have Chris Webber, Vlade Divac and those guys and don't run a high-post offense. I'd say it is to have a team that plays very hard and plays to its strengths.

"Is there an ideal team? Yeah. For me, an ideal team would be two 7-foot guys that can flat-out block shots, rebound and score in the paint. When you find those guys, let me know."